Janice Atkinson
Independent MEP for the South East, member of the Europe of Nations and Freedoms group in the European Parliament

THE BLOG

Quarter of a Million New School Places Needed Because of Uncontrolled Immigration - Has the Government Factored in the Unknown Number of Bulgarians and Romanians Arriving on 1 January?

15/03/2013 13:08 GMT
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Updated
15/05/2013 10:12 BST

Labour says it didn't, the Tories say they did, their Lib Dems spokesman says they are putting things right, yet the headteachers argue that they aren't. And the media commentators won't mention the elephant in the room.

What am I talking about - well, it could be anything because that's how the waffle flies back and forth between the three main parties at Westminster but of course what they were really talking about this morning is uncontrolled immigration filling up our primary schools.

The latest report from the National Audit Office warns that a quarter of a million extra school places will be needed in England by autumn 2014 to meet rising demand because the past decade has seen the biggest increase in birth rate since the 1950s. Labour cut back school places, this government is playing catch-up.

One in five primary school places is full, we know that the majority of migrants are coming from the EU accession states. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows the net migration and population increases/decreases in the 27 EU states. Britain has the fifth largest population growth behind Cyprus, Ireland, Spain and Luxembourg. And conversely, the countries with a net migration loss are Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Poland.

It is no coincidence that the number of people in their 20s has risen from 6.6m to 7.6m - that additional one million people are most likely to be migrant workers from these latter countries. And it is no coincidence that we have one million out of work young people and that the birth rate has risen.

Can I request that our state broadcaster and the rest of the media asks the pertinent questions such as:

What nationalities are the children requiring the places?

How long have they been here?

How many are asylum seekers and what borders did they cross to get here?

Have their parents paid taxes?

How much is it costing the taxpayers for these extra places and NHS usage and other services?

Are we going to have Ed Miliband apologising (yet again) for how they got it wrong on immigration?

Has the government made extra provision for the unknown numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians arriving with their children on 1 January?

And then the British public can make an informed decision at the ballot box.